System and method for dynamic, multivariable comparison of financial products

ABSTRACT

A multivariable search system for the comparative analysis of financial products allows the user to enter a set of criteria of their choice with desired ranges and in addition, a weighting factor to be applied to the criteria. Mutual funds, for instance, may be searched according to desired rates of return, fund type categories, and assigned levels of weight or emphasis on different ones of the criteria. Search results may be returned in coded form, indicating which candidate products they match all of the selected criteria, and which ones generate the highest net score given the weighting and other factors. Searches may be revised or refined based on the presented results, or new searches may be performed. Hot linkable connections may be presented to transaction sites to carry out purchases, obtain prospectuses, or other activities relating to the mutual fund or other financial products returned.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is filed as a broadening continuation application under35 U.S.C. § 120 of the prior application Ser. No. 09/552,879 filed onApr. 20, 2000, entitled “System And Method For Dynamic, MultivariableComparison of Financial Products,” which is herein incorporated byreference in its entirety. Any disclaimer that may have occurred duringthe prosecution of the above-referenced application(s) is herebyexpressly rescinded.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of electronic commerce, and moreparticularly to the dynamic, realtime comparison of financial productssuch as mutual funds.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advent of electronic commerce has led to an increasinglysophisticated array of networked financial products and services, andconsumer tools to access and analyze those products and services. Onlineshopping comparators, in which categories of consumer goods or servicesare sorted by price, are known. Reverse auction services, in which aconsumer names a price and then a search engine attempts to match thatprice amongst participating vendors, are also known. In the realm offinancial products and services, a host of Internet-based banking,mutual funds, and other financial tools have been deployed.

In the case of mutual funds, the subject product involves a set ofperformance numbers and other quantities which require more than asimple, one-field comparison on the basis of price. As a result,shopping for networked mutual fund products typically involves running acomparison engine in which a consumer wishing to invest in a mutual fundenters a set of predefined ranges for several variables fitting theirneeds, and pertaining to funds in the search set. For instance, theconsumer may enter a request for comparison of funds whose 5-yearaverage return is at least 20% with an expense load of no more than1.5%. Conventional search engines will then access some type of databasewhose fields correspond to these predefined variables, and return onlythose mutual fund products matching the complete criteria set by theinquirer.

However, those types of comparison engines suffer from more than onedrawback. For one, if a candidate mutual fund lacks one of the selectedcriteria but very satisfactorily meets all of the remainder,conventional search engines will omit that product from the presentationof search results. Moreover, while such engines permit a user to inputranges for different criteria, once they are entered those ranges arenot weighable. That is, the user is not afforded the opportunity tocreate a sliding scale of importance to be applied to the variousquantitative factors supported by the search engine, or to sort outresults once hits are found based on variable weights. In addition,conventional search engines are not equipped to allow a user tore-search an existing collection of hits by adding, deleting oradjusting one or more criteria or weights on those criteria, to refinesearches and focus in on products of particular interest.

Further, conventional search engines may be constrained in the inputfeeds they use, and not be able to obtain multiple feeds or frequent orreal-time updates. More flexible and robust financial search technologyis desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention overcoming these and other drawbacks in the art relates toa system and method for dynamic, multivariable comparison of financialproducts which permits consumers to select, enter, and edit criteria oftheir choosing, and weight those criteria according to user objectives.Search results based on this multivariable comparison may be presentedin a quantitative or hybrid quantitative/graphical form, and links toservice sites for purchase of the products involved may be presented.The database or databases from which candidate funds or other productsare drawn for comparison by the search engine may be updated frequentlyor in real-time, and the search criteria may involve more than purelyquantitative data. For instance, a user may wish to restrict theirsearch for a financial or other product to subsets within certaincategories, such as growth funds within the universe of available mutualfunds. The invention in one embodiment is reflected in the FundProfiler™ product of the assignee of this application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which like elements are referenced by like numerals.

FIG. 1 illustrates a search engine architecture according to a firstillustrative embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 2( a)-2(y) illustrate user interfaces and search logic forillustrative comparisons executed by the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of comparison processing according to theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The invention will be described with reference to an illustrativearchitecture shown in FIG. 1, in which a transaction server 106communicates with a variety of database and other resources tocoordinate the delivery of financial comparisons to a consumer at aclient 118. Client 118 is connected to the transaction server 106 viacommunications link 104.

Communications link 104 may be, include or access any one or more of,for instance, the Internet, an intranet, a PAN (Personal Area Network) aLAN (Local Area Network), a WAN (Wide Area Local Network), or a MAN(Metropolitan Area Network), a frame relay connection, an AdvancedIntelligent Network (AIN) connection, a synchronous optical connection,DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection, a digital T1, T2, or E1 line,Digital Data Service (DDS) connection, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)connection, an Ethernet connection, an ISDN (Integrated Services DigitalNetwork) line, a dial-up port such as a V.90, V.34, or V.34bis analogmodem connection, a cable modem, an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)connection, or FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Networks) or CDDI (CopperDistributed Data Interface) connections.

Communications link 104 may furthermore be, include or access any one ormore of a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) link, a GPRS (GeneralPacket Radio Service) link, a GSM (Global System for MobileCommunication ) link a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) or TDMA(Time Division Multiple Access) link such as a cellular phone channel, aGPS (Global Positioning System) link, CDPD (cellular digital packetdata), a RIM (Research in Motion, Limited) duplex paging type device, aBluetooth radio link, or an IEEE 802.11-based radio frequency link.Communications link 104 may yet further be, include or access any one ormore of an RS-232 serial connection, an IEEE-1394 (Fire wire)connection, an IrDA (infrared) port, a SCSI (Small Computer SerialInterface) connection, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection or otherwired or wireless, digital or analog interface or connection.

Client 118 itself may be or include, for instance, a personal computerrunning the Microsoft Windows™ 95, 98, Millennium, NT, or 2000, Unix,Linux, Solaris™, OS/2™, BeOS™, MacOS™, or other operating system orplatform. Client 118 may include a microprocessor such as an Intelx86-based device, a Motorola 68K or PowerPC device, a MIPS, HewlettPackard or Alpha RISC processor, a microcontroller or other general orspecial purpose device operating under a programmed control. Client 118may furthermore include electronic memory such as RAM (random accessmemory), or EPROM (electronically programmable read only memory),storage such as hard drive, CDROM or rewritable CDROM or other magnetic,optical, or other media, and other associated components connected overan electronic bus, as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art.Client 118 may also be a network-enabled appliance such as a WebTV™unit, radio-enable Palm™ Pilot or similar unit, a set-top box, a gameplaying console such as Sony Playstation™ or Sega Dreamcast™, abrowser-equipped cellular telephone, or other TCP/IP client or otherdevice.

The transaction server 106 may be or include, for instance, aworkstation running the Microsoft Windows™ NT™, Windows™ 2000, Unix,Linux, IBM AIX, Hewlett-Packard UX, Novell Netware™, Sun MicrosystemsSolaris™, OS/2™, BeOS™, Mach, Apache, OpenStep™, or other operatingsystem or platform. Transaction server 106 includes or executes a searchengine 116 capable of interrogating or querying a relational or otherdatabase source to execute user commands. In the illustrativeembodiment, the transaction server 106 communicates via communicationslink 108 to a set of information sources 110 a . . . 110 n. Theinformation sources 110 a . . . 110 n may be or include, for instance,commercially available financial or other information sources, such as afeed on a real-time or batch basis from the Lipper™ financial networksource. It will be appreciated that other information sources, singly ortogether, may communicate with transaction server 106 to serve as rawinformation for customized consumer inquiries.

Search engine 116 is configured to accept information from the sources110 a . . . 110 n and interrogate the resulting information feed, inrelational database or other format. In one implementation of theinvention, the search engine 116 may advantageously be, include oraccess the commercially available Frictionless™ product available fromFrictionless Commerce, Inc. Search engine 116 may also be, include oraccess other existing data storage or management, technology such as theOracle™ relational database sold commercially by Oracle Corp. Otherdatabases, such as Informix™, DB2 or other data storage or query formatsor platforms, such as SQL may also be used, accessed or incorporated inthe invention.

In the operation of the invention, the client 118 may present a consumerwishing to inquire about mutual fund or other products with a userinterface 102 laying out a set of user-selectable criteria 120,illustrated as criteria 1 . . . n. As illustrated in more detail inFIGS. 2( a)-2(y), the criteria 120 in general may include enumeratedfinancial information such as average fund returns for 1, 5, 10 years orother applicable periods, expense loads, fund asset size, net assetvalue (NAV) fund type, minimum investment and other qualitative orquantitative categories of information. In addition, the user may bepresented with user-definable weighting ranges on interface 102.

That is, in the illustrative embodiment, the invention presents the uservia interface 102 with not just sets of quantitative or qualitativefields, but also weighting module 124 to permit a set of a weightingranges to allow the user to attach discretionary levels of importance tothose various ranges, should they be present in candidate fund. The usermay assign a set of weights to those selected data, for instancecategorizing different features as “must have” for greatest weighting,or lesser degrees according in one implementation to a sliding,radio-button scale as illustrated in FIG. 2( g). This means that aconsumer at client 118 may receive a broad compilation of search resultsreflecting a collection of complex information, but sorted according tothat user's particular needs.

For instance, one user may be looking for mutual fund products havingthe characteristics of at least a 15% average annualized return over thelast five years, while being categorized conservatively as an incomefund, and having an expense load of less than 1.5%. For that user andtheir comparison criteria, mutual fund products having thosecharacteristics may be presented and sorted, while other mutual fundsmatching the quantitative criteria, but lacking the income fundcategory, may also be presented for completeness and flexibility. Asillustrated in FIGS. 2( a)-2(y), the interface 102 of the invention maypresent the user with graphical result code 122 indicating the varyingdegree of match between the user's inputted criteria and thecharacteristics of the funds presented in the search results 112.

Illustratively the interface 102 may present the user with a blue barnext to entries in the search results 112 whose degree of blueness orlength of bar reflects how well candidate funds or other products meetall inputted criteria. The user may, therefore, immediately isolate theproducts which meet all stated criteria. However, the invention may alsopresent the user with other graphical result codes 122, such as a yellowbar, indicating that some but not all of criteria 120 were met.Nonetheless, a candidate fund marked with a yellow bar may generate ahigher match score and receive a higher ordinal ranking if a givenmutual fund product does not contain all stated criteria 120 of thesearch, however matches higher-weighted criteria to a particularlystrong degree.

The resulting sort list in the search results 112 may thus present theuser with a variety of matching funds, some meeting all criteria 120while others may have fewer categorical matches but higher net matchscores resulting from user-defined weighting. The weighting module 124may store pre-assigned default values for different categories of thecriteria 120, but which the user may manipulate via interface 102 toadjust up or down. The user may similarly manipulate the interface 102to create or access an investment profile 126 for that user for thepurpose of pre-filling one or more different criteria 120, for useduring later sessions.

Once the user has entered or selected all criteria 120 at the client118, the criteria 120 are communicated to the transaction server 106 forentry into the search engine 116. Search engine 116 obtains the criteria120 for a relational or other query against the information sources 110a . . . 110 n on a real-time or batch basis. Once the informationsources 110 a . . . 110 n are interrogated the search engine 116collects and transmits the search results 112 to the client 118 viacommunications link 104. The search results 112 may satisfy the user ininitial form, providing enough information to permit the user to make atransaction decision. In that regard and as illustrated for instance inFIGS. 2( m), 2(x) and 2(y), interface 102 may include a transaction link128 permitting the user to reach a linkable Web or other site via a URLor other linking resource, to enter information, obtain a prospectus,perform a transaction or take other steps.

However, in the practice of the invention if the user wishes to reviseor refine search results 112, provisions made for search refinementthrough search modification module 114 accessible through the interface102. The search modification module 114 allows the user to executeediting functions to alter, delete, add, or otherwise manipulate thecriteria 120 to re-execute or refine the search.

If the user chooses to revise the criteria 120, they manipulate theinterface 102 to enter different values, ranges, or weights forcomparison against the information sources 110 a . . . 110 n. In oneembodiment, the search results 112 may be stored locally on the client118 so that further refinements within the search results 112 themselvesmay be performed without the need to communicate over communicationslink 104 and other facilities. Conversely, if the user wishes to add tothe criteria 120, or to replace one or more of the criteria 120 withentirely new values, it may be necessary to communicate betweencommunications link 104 and other resources to obtain new search results112.

A revised or refined search may produce new search results 112, withrecalculated and re-presented graphical results codes 122 indicating anew ordinal ranking of mutual funds or other products, again forinstance using blue bars, yellow bars, or other icons or other graphicalrepresentations. It may be noted that the transmissions viacommunications link 104 or otherwise may be encrypted using PGP, SSL,128-bit encryption or other security techniques.

An illustrative example of a comparison session will be described withreference to FIGS. 2( a) and 2(z) in more detail. As shown in FIG. 2(a), the user interface 102 may present the user with a login screen. Theuser then may be presented with a selection screen as shown in FIG. 2(b) to select the profiling function of the invention. As shown in FIGS.2( c)-2(e), the user may then be presented with a description of theservice along with instructions on how to proceed with invoking acomparison session. The user may then be presented with an option toeither select a predefined search profile, illustratively a set ofinvestment objectives rated between very aggressive and veryconservative, and a custom profile selection permitting individualcriteria selection, as shown in FIG. 2( f).

If the user elects to set up a custom profile, then as shown in FIG. 2(g) the set of criteria 120 may be presented along with the weightingmodule 124 in the form of selectable radio buttons to arrange theirdesired complex of criteria. As shown in FIGS. 2( h) and 2(i), the usermay drill down into individual ones of the criteria 120 for rangeselection and explanations of the pertinent data. Once the desiredranges and weights are input or selected for all of the criteria 120,the entire set of search criteria are communicated to the transactionserver 106. The search engine 116 then interrogates the informationsources 110 a . . . 110 n, and returns search results 112 illustrated inFIGS. 2( j)-2(l). As shown for instance in FIGS. 2( j)-2(l), thegraphical result code 122 for each entry within the search results 112may be included along with quantitative and other information to permitthe user to compare and evaluate different products coinciding withtheir needs. As shown in FIG. 2( m), a transaction link 128 may bepresented, in this case illustratively a request for a financialprospectus.

As illustrated in FIGS. 2( n)-2(y), once the transaction server 106returns the search results 112 to the client 118, the search result 112the user may drill down through the search results 112 in order to viewmore information about particular funds, sort the results, alter one ormore of the criteria 120 and generally manipulate the user interface 102to refine and explore the search results. As illustrated in FIG. 2( y),another possibility for the transaction link 128 as a link to a purchasesite for individual funds or other products, depending on the searchresults 112, the user's existing account and other factors.

Overall processing of mutual fund comparative profiles according to theinvention is illustrated in FIG. 3. In step 302, processing begins. Instep 304, a user logs in at client 118, and the login may includeauthentication processing if desired. In step 306, either criteria 120to be newly entered or pre-filled criteria if investment profile 126 isactivated are presented via on the interface 102. In step 308, the userselects or inputs the criteria 120 they wish to apply to the search,along with any weights via the weighting module 124. In step 310, theuser's entered search information is communicated via communicationslink 104 to the transaction server 106.

In step 312, the search engine 116 communicates with the informationsources 110 a . . . 110 n to interrogate those sources for matches tothe user's search criteria 120. In step 314, search results 112 arecommunicated to the client 118 and presented to the user, which mayinclude for example graphical result code 122, numerical data, ordinalrankings, advertising, or other information. In step 316 a revisedsearch is executed using search modification module 114, if desired. Instep 318, linking to a transaction site via a transaction link 128 isexecuted if the user so desires. In step 320, the search results 112 andother information may be stored on client 118, transaction server 106 orelsewhere if desired. In step 322, processing ends.

The foregoing description of the system and method for dynamicmultivariable comparisons according to the invention is illustrated, andvariations in configuration and implementation will occur to personsskilled in the art. For example, while search results 112 have beendescribed as being visually presented on interface 112 of client 118,search results and related information could be communicated audiblyusing text-to-speech or other conversion software for delivery viatelephone, pager, or other communication mode. Similarly, while thesearch action has been described as taking place on a single transactionserver 106, a variety of distributed architectures could be used tocarry out searching and processing on different resources remotely orlocally, depending on architecture. The scope of the invention isaccordingly intended to be limited only by the following claims.

1. A system having a processor and memory for multivariable comparisonof financial information to generate search results based onuser-selected quantitative search criteria and user-selected weightingcriteria, comprising: a processor performing instructions for a clientinterface for a user to receive weightable search information, theweightable search information comprising user-selected quantitativesearch criteria and user-selected weighting criteria, the weightingcriteria reflecting user-defined levels of importance for one or more ofthe quantitative search criteria; and a processor performinginstructions for a search interface, communicating with the clientinterface, to interrogate at least one network-enabled informationsource according to the weightable search information to generate searchresults; wherein the financial information comprises a plurality offinancial products, each having multiple quantitative variablesassociated therewith; a memory for storing the search results; thesearch interface being operative to compare the quantitative variableswith the user-selected quantitative search criteria and theuser-selected weighting criteria to generate search results comprising:a first set of financial products that do not satisfy all of theuser-selected quantitative search criteria, but which satisfy theoverall user-defined criteria based on the combination of theuser-selected weighting criteria and the user-selected quantitativecriteria, wherein the search results provide a quantitative indicationof how well the search results match the weighted criteria; the searchinterface to perform subsequent searches within stored results of aprior search to restrict search results; the search interface operativeto perform other subsequent searches to interrogate at least onenetwork-enabled information source to expand search results; and thesearch interface operative to recalculate and re-present the resultindicators which indicate the level the search results match theweighted criteria.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or morefinancial products comprise one or more mutual funds.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, further comprising a results interface operative to display thesearch results to the user.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein theresults interface comprises a graphical user interface operative todisplay the one or more financial products in a sortable list.
 5. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the one or more financial products compriseone or more mutual funds, and the results interface is operative toreceive requests for a prospectus for one or more of the one or moremutual funds.
 6. The system of claim 3, wherein the one or morefinancial products comprise one or more mutual funds, and the resultsinterface is operative to receive requests for an application for one ormore of the one or more mutual funds.
 7. The system of claim 1, whereinthe search results further comprise a second set of search resultscomprising financial products that satisfy all of the user-selectedquantitative search criteria.
 8. A method for multivariable comparisonof financial information to generate search results based onuser-selected quantitative search criteria and user-selected weightingcriteria, comprising: a) receiving weightable search information from aclient interface, the weightable search information comprisinguser-selected quantitative search criteria and user-selected weightingcriteria, the weighting criteria reflecting user-defined levels ofimportance for one or more of the quantitative search criteria; and b)accessing at least one network-enabled information source comprisingfinancial information regarding a plurality of financial products, eachfinancial product having multiple quantitative variables associatedtherewith; c) comparing the quantitative variables with theuser-selected quantitative search criteria and the user-selectedweighting criteria; d) generating search results comprising: a first setof financial products that do not satisfy all of the user-selectedquantitative search criteria, but which satisfy the overall user-definedcriteria based on the combination of the user-selected weightingcriteria and the user-selected quantitative criteria, wherein the searchresults indicate the level the search results match the weightedcriteria; e) performing subsequent searches comprising: searching withinstored results of a prior search to restrict search results;interrogating at least one network-enabled information source to expandsearch results; recalculating and re-presenting the result indicatorswhich provide a quantitative indication of how well the search resultsmatch the weighted criteria.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the oneor more financial products comprise one or more mutual funds.
 10. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising displaying the search results tothe user.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein displaying the searchresults to the user comprises displaying the one or more financialproducts in a sortable list on a graphical user interface.
 12. Themethod of claim 10, wherein the one or more financial products compriseone or more mutual funds, and the method further comprises receiving arequest for a prospectus for one or more of the one or more mutualfunds.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more financialproducts comprise one or more mutual funds, and the method furthercomprises receiving an application for one or more of the one or moremutual funds.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein generating searchresults further comprises: generating a second set of search resultscomprising financial products that satisfy all of the user-selectedquantitative search criteria.
 15. The system of claim 1 wherein searchcriteria are revisable during subsequent searches.
 16. The method ofclaim 8 wherein search criteria are revisable during subsequentsearches.
 17. The system claim 1 wherein the addition of search criteriaduring subsequent searches causes at least one network-enabledinformation source to expand search results.
 18. The method of claim 8wherein the addition of search criteria during subsequent searchescauses at least one network-enabled information source to expand searchresults.
 19. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more financialproducts comprise one or more investment funds.
 20. The method of claim8, wherein the one or more financial products comprise one or moreinvestment funds.